John Rice wrote:
> Stephen has posted about the authority/0 action against a depot server 
> that would return authority info to allow a client to setup and 
> configure the authority. In the form of the standalone document format, 
> I'd like to extend this to allow packages to be included for install.
> 
> Suggested Mimetype to cover both authority and package installs (changed 
> from pkg-auth and .pkgauth):
> Mimetype: application/vnd.opensolaris.pkg-info
> Suffix: .pkginfo

I'd prefer a shorter extension, and as others have already pointed out 
in past discussions, ".pkg" is currently used by several other software 
management systems [1].  As such, it is my belief that ".pkginfo" 
implies a link to one of those other systems.  The .ips extension is 
already taken [2] as well.

What about ".p5i" for pkg(5) info or some other extension?

> .pkginfo supported fields from Stephens authority/0 mail:
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> authority_name: Required
> authority_fullname: Optional

What if the authority name here conflicts with an authority they already 
have?  Will that update the mirrors and origin_urls of that authority?

I don't think this information should be required since if the 
origin_url(s) points at a depot server that supports authority/0, then 
we can get this information automatically.

> repository_nickname: Optional

What if the nickname conflicts with an existing one?

> collection_type:  "complete" or "supplement".  Required.

I don't think this information should be required since if the 
origin_url(s) points at a depot server that supports authority/0, then 
we can get this information automatically.

> origin_urls: one or more Required.

What if the origin_urls of the new authority are the same as an existing 
one?  What problems will that create for the user?

> related_origin_urls: Optional
> mirrors: one or more, Optional
> update_period:  Optional
> license_url:  Optional.
> registration_url: Optional
> registration_protocol: Optional
> pkg_names: list of package names to install from this authority, the PM 
> supports install of the latest package so only the package name is 
> required at present, do we want/ need to support full fmri's here??  

Yes, I believe full FMRIs should be supported.  What delimiter are you 
going to use?  It should be a character that isn't allowed in FMRIs 
(i.e. you can't use a ',' or ':', etc.).

What happens if one of the pkg_names provided isn't valid?

> Optional <-- Only additional field we need at present

What's this for?

> Any thoughts?

I'd prefer to see this information output in a json format; if not, at 
the very least, all of the authority specific fields should get prefixed 
with "authority." and the remainder with "info." or something to make it 
obvious what is what and to make extending the information easier in the 
future.

How does this functionality get handled security-wise?  Since this file 
essentially gives the ability to arbitrarily install unknown software, 
I'm assuming that it will always prompt the user with full information 
about what will happen if they accept.

I don't think that this logic should be implemented only in the gui (not 
even for initial implementation); instead it needs to be implemented as 
part of the api, and both the cli and gui should support it.  I could 
envision the install subcommand of the cli taking an additional -i or 
--info option that would contain a URL or filepath to a package 
information file.  The gui would work the same.

Finally, I think it's too early to implement this, though I'm all for 
planning and discussing it.  My personal belief is that both the 
authority/0 changes and the configuration file format changes need to be 
in place first.

Cheers,
-- 
Shawn Walker

[1] http://filext.com/file-extension/pkg

[2] http://filext.com/file-extension/ips
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